Polling and predictions on Oscar winners

INTERACTIVE

There’s only two movies opening in Arkansas this weekend, the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson vehicle Snitch (which our Dan Lybarger doesn’t actively hate; he says Johnson is “is broad shouldered enough to look authoritative behind a shotgun and has the range to play something more than a garden variety tough guy“) and the horror film Dark Skies, which marks a comeback/reboot of sorts for the formerly family friendly Keri Russell (though its not a good sign that they didn’t screen it for critics).

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see here — Sunday night they’re going to hand out some kind of awards in Hollywood, and our film critic Philip Martin has polled a number of active Oscar watchers on who think will win what. (While we cannot condone wagering of any sort, several of our handpicked handicappers — who include regular contributors to the program Levi Agee and Karen Martin, as well as ringers like Sam Blair, Danny-Joe Crofford, Jay Russell and Blake Rutherford, all of whom have hit on at least 90 percent of their picks over the years. Martin picks too, but he’s not really trying — he has Amour winning best picture.)

Martin also gives a glimpse inside the classes he teaches for the LifeQuest program. And Karen Martin’s weekly HomeMovies column looks at the favorite to win this year’s Best Picture prize, Ben Affleck’s Argo.